Financial Summary 2023-24
Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) gets annual funding from two sources. Firstly, council tax. In the 2023-24 financial year, £3,010,000 came via Somerset Council (equating to £14.65 for a Band D household). Secondly, the Parrett and Axe Brue IDBs each gave £10,000. Local Partner Funds thus totalled £3,030,000.
In March 2023, the SRA Board moved extra funds out of contingency and set an overall budget of £4,005,000.
This included £2,999,000 for the SRA’s 2023-24 Enhanced Programme of works, £280,000 for four full-time staff, a part-time Technical Adviser post, administration, overheads and the development of the SRA Strategy 2024-34; and £726,000 for contingency.
The 2023-24 Enhanced Programme contained 12 new schemes and activities, and four previously deferred, some with numerous individual elements.
All Enhanced Programme works are designed to advance Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan.
Spending of Local Partner Funds in 2023-24
Many actions and initiatives are completed within one financial year. Some require longer-term research, design, planning and implementation.
The lines below set out all of the Local Partner Funds held by the SRA at the beginning of the 2023-24 financial year and the SRA’s total spending during that year.
The SRA’s spending in 2023-24 totalled £3,804,000. By workstream, it was as follows:
Workstream 1, Dredging and river management, £2,140,000, that is 56.25% of the total.
Workstream 2, Land Management including Natural Flood Management, £64,000, that is 1.69% of the total.
Workstream 3, Urban Water Management, £294,000, that is 5% of the total.
Workstream 4, Resilient Infrastructure, £474,000, that is 12.46% of the total.
Workstream 5, Building Local Resilience, £390,000, that is 10.25% of the total.
Spending in these five workstreams made a sub-total of £3,535,000.
To them was added SRA core work and development, £38,000, that is 1% of the total, and SRA administration and staffing, £231,000, that is 6.07% of the total.
At the start of the 2023-24 financial year, the SRA possessed total allocated funds of £7,657,000. Spending £3,804,000 in 2023-24 meant the amount carried forwards to the 2024-25 financial year was £3,853,000.